This thesis aims at studying the thought of life in the Book of Changes. The thought is evaluated to best express the principle of life in the universe. It means that the book well interprets the life phenomena of all things which the universe is fill...
This thesis aims at studying the thought of life in the Book of Changes. The thought is evaluated to best express the principle of life in the universe. It means that the book well interprets the life phenomena of all things which the universe is filled with. The thought is full of the circulating principles of all things according to the principles of changes in the universe and the transforming principles of life. The life in the universe goes through a process of birth and death by a change of yin and yang, the action of the universe.
The book says that the universe as the source of creation involves the principles of all things, experiences one yin and one yang, and continues to repeat the motion of incessant generation. Saying '天地之大德曰生(meaning that what is most important in the universe is generation)' and ‘生生之謂易(meaning that incessant generation is called change)’, the Copula commentary understands as life the substance of all things in the universe.
When he created change drawing the Eight Trigrams for the first time, Bok-hui was based on the principles of natural change and generation. The trigrams started from yin and yang and again branched into the four divisions of yin and yang by opposition and sympathy and the eight trigrams, which belong to a developmental process of cosmic life by the action of yin and yang.
The principles of the book experience the circular-flow cyclic action that life starts from a change in yin and yang, grows up and ruins and that new life is again born and repeats the same. And the change is connected, that is, to life phenomena. In the Song dynasty where the book was reinterpreted as a change by the Justice school, it developed into new philosophy based on morality. It presented man with the method of moral culture which enabled him to have a moral personality based on cosmic order of life and the solution which enabled him to prepare for a change. Besides, it led him to the way where when he adapted himself to the circulating law of yin and yang he was changed into moral man, carried out the virtue in the world and participated in it with worldly people.
Referring to Providence as nature, the Doctrine of the Mean clarified that man was innately endowed with benevolence, justice, politeness and wisdom, which are natural laws. The nature as Providence which involves cosmic principles means vitality. It is because by its orderly circulation and repetition the four seasons go round and all things lead life. Since life is incessantly generated like it, the things in the world are circulated and man plays the role of vitality by doing things fit for them.
Men are classified into a great man, a gentleman and a mean person according to their innate dispositions. They can return to their original nature only when cultivating the dispositions. The book expressed as words the changing principles of trigrams and horizontal strokes for them to allow them to recover their morality and enabled them to perfect humanity by leading them to moral culture. It expressed observance of moral principles as good luck and retrogression to them as bad luck, and presented through images a method of overcoming bad luck and proceeding to good luck.
The charm of the book consists in a change. All living things change and advance incessantly. It is 64 trigrams and 384 horizontal strokes for them that expressed the change. By expressing all the principle and virtue of life in them, the book enabled them to observe images, know smacks and evade bad luck and take good luck. It said that they should proceed to the way responding to all things in the world by occasional makeshifts. It stressed that it was important not to lose the right time in the makeshifts. It expressed as trigrams and horizontal strokes for them a method of solving everything like it.
What man pursues is better world, happier future. The future can be reached by moral culture because it is achieved as he recovers the nature of his life. Namely, he is engaged in an occupation through advancing to virtue and cultivating an occupation, which is personal moral culture, and proceeds to an immense business.
The book aims at realizing a moral society by emphasizing a great man and a gentleman. A great man is the one reaching the perfect stage by acquiring the changing principles of the world. For example, both play the roles for the unity of worldly people in the way that the former implements neutralization and the latter practices the morality. It means that both can achieve the way of impartiality in the way that the former acquires the middle by clarifying God's virtue and the latter acquires the justice which is humanity. Therefore, the unity of Providence and humanity which is provided to the world achieves the unity of worldly people.
The key principles of the book are creating life, changing all things by the mutual support of yin and yang and having each of them achieved. They implement vitality, which allows man to advance to virtue and cultivate an occupation, make shift in the right time in everything and proceed to an immense business. They aim at the unity of worldly people meaning the unity with vitality achieving the virtue in the world like it.